CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Adam sat at a marble dinner table on a balcony overlooking the coliseum. Hordes of soldiers filled bleachers to his left and his right, enthralled by twenty scantily-clad females dancing in the center of the ring—new recruits hoping to be chosen by males for their beds and a chance to become a Lifebond.
“You are pleased?” Ava asked, sipping apricot nectar from a silver-stemmed glass, watching him from beneath half-veiled eyes.
He reached for her hand, pressed it to his lips. “Your ability to influence these women’s thoughts and feelings is nothing shy of amazing.”
She beamed with satisfaction that lasted only moments. “We are up to seventy women again,” she said. “Two of the new recruits are now Lifebonds.” Considering she’d scaled back her fertility testing and had still managed to kill ten of her subjects, this number spoke highly of Tad’s recruiting efforts—if you could call luring women into captivity recruiting.
The crowd roared as the women exited, music blaring through speakers as the real show prepared to begin. The lights dimmed around the bleachers, spotlights glowing around Adam’s wolves as they filed onto the stone center floor. Candles flickered on high walls around the ring and on the tables.
Recently captured human soldiers would soon appear to fight for survival, promised they might earn the serum. Of course, his stock was low. It would take a warrior of great skill to be worthy. Not likely, but it was entertaining to watch his wolves. Adrenaline rushed through him at the excitement, all else but the show forgotten.
That was until the scent of female and fear flared in his sensitive nostrils. His gaze shifted to his right to the stone hallway where Tad entered the balcony, a terrified female in front of him with a gun to her back. Tears streamed down her face.
Irritation grated Adam’s nerves as Tad stopped at the far end of the table. “What is it you want, Tad?”
Ava pushed to her feet and walked to the Asian beauty and took her hands. “You’re okay,” she said, staring into the woman’s eyes and then touching her forehead. The female stopped crying, her expression taking on a distant, calm look. Ava gave her another once-over. “She is a good specimen at least,” she said dryly.
“She also has an interesting family connection,” Tad said, running his hand down her hair. “Tell them who your father is.”
“Tan Chin,” she said softly.
Ava’s eyes went wide. “As in Dr. Chin?”
“That’s right,” Tad said, his attention going to Adam. “She was living with Chin’s ex-wife in China. But I found her.”
Adam arched a brow. “Does Chin know?”
“Not only does he know,” Tad replied, “he assures me he can get us Red Dart, a stock of serum, as well as both Michael and Cassandra, tonight. He even promises aid with the birth of your child.” He leveled his stare on Adam. “I want to be Michael’s replacement.”
Adam studied him. He was distasteful to the eye, unworthy. Yet, he was resourceful at a time when Adam had been forced to avoid battle for fear any injury would affect Ava and his child. He would use Tad for now. When he had Red Dart, he would force both his brother and Michael to join him. He would not need the likes of Tad.
He inclined his head. “I hear you doing lots of talking,” Adam said. “Show me results.”
Near dawn, with Sterling, Damion, Caleb, and about a dozen soldiers, Cassandra and Michael exited Sunrise City. Nerves jumped in Cassandra’s stomach. Instead of sleeping, she’d shared her ideas with Michael to organize the women into a coalition against the female abductions. Talking and making love, of course, had kept her mind off what the day would hold. No matter what the cause, it would be hard to see her father taken into captivity. And then there was the wind-walking.
Cassandra Powell—used-to-be-normal, military girl—was going to wind-walk. Or maybe she wasn’t so normal—not for a long time, it seemed. She did, after all, have a father who’d created a new race and a half-alien lover who had now become her permanent Lifebond. Thankfully, there were no morning-after effects from the final phase, considering all she had to face today. She’d been so close to bonding with Michael that the final step had been a piece of cake. For once in her life, she’d had no sleep and still felt like a million dollars.
The doors to the city slid shut behind them, and Cassandra turned and blinked. The mountain looked untouched, as if that door did not exist.
“Not so sure about this whole wind-walking thing,” Cassandra said. “My first attempt wasn’t such a good one.”
“You’re different now,” Michael assured her.
“You complete him,” Sterling joked, repeating a line from the movie Jerry Maguire and pressing his hand to his chest. He snorted and then added, “It’s addictive. The wind-walking, that is.” He inclined his head at Michael. “Not Michael. Or if he is—I don’t want to hear about it.”
Michael pulled her close. “Ready?”
She inhaled nervously. “I think so.”
He didn’t wait for a more definite answer. Suddenly, the most incredible force of energy lanced her body, and before she could even begin to react, she was standing in the alley across from her condo.
She blinked and smiled. “Oh my God, that was so amazing. Can we do it again?”
Michael laughed and kissed her. “Many, many times,” he promised. “But not now. Now you go inside and change clothes.”
She clung to him. “You aren’t coming in with me?”
“You bet your life I am,” he promised. “But I don’t want anyone to see me enter.” He slid a cell phone to her hand. “Punch the speed dial ‘1’ button when you get to the door, and let me know it’s clear so no one sees me with you, and I’ll wind-walk.”
“You think it won’t be?” she asked apprehensively.
“I’m sure everything is fine,” he told her. “The Zodius think you’re still inside Sunrise City. They won’t know you’re here until you show yourself at the base. But I’m not taking any chances with your safety.”
He patted her ass. “Now go. Get to that door, and let’s get inside.” His lips brushed hers as he sent her on her way. Cassandra’s stomach clenched, nerves again taking root. The end of this day could not come soon enough.
The path across the street was short, and she was dialing the phone before she even turned into the hallway to her condo. “It’s clear,” she said the instant she scanned the entryway. Michael was there an instant later pulling a tool kit of some sort from his pocket to pick her lock. Apparently, he’d thought of the fact she didn’t have the keys.
He shoved the door open, pulled a gun from under his pant leg, and entered. “Stay here, right inside the door,” he said.
Cassandra did as he said, and her heart raced as he scanned the condo. When he reholstered his weapon and pushed the door shut, locking it behind him, she let out a heavy breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. “I can’t wait until this is over.”
He pulled her close. “Soon, sweetheart,” he promised. “I have you shielded from Trackers, but I don’t like being in this apartment. Go get ready for work. I’ll follow you to the base, where you will be safe. Do not, under any circumstances, leave that base without calling me first. You go nowhere without me following.”
“You’re not making me feel better,” she said.
He kissed her. “I’ll do that when we get back home to our bed.”
“Our bed?” she asked softly.
“Our bed,” he said, tangling his hands in her hair. “Where I plan to keep you for at least a week when this is over.”
She clung to the intimacy between them, to the sweet way he was trying to make her relax. But there was a knot in her chest that clamped down with every breath. Something felt terribly wrong. She told herself this was to be expected; today she would help throw her father into lifelong prison.
Yet still that knot tightened and twisted in her chest with the awful feeling that everything was going to go horribly, terribly wrong. A feeling she didn’t share with Michael. He was jumpy and on edge as it was. Her father had created this mess, and she had to help make things right. She felt as if the beginning of the end was upon them, and somehow, someway, she had to stop it from happening.
Lucian stood outside the security gates of Zodius City and called to report to Adam. The instant he stepped on the scanner, the wind shifted, and six soldiers surrounded him. Tad stood front and center, holding a snub-nose .38 special locked and loaded at Lucian’s forehead.
“Your service will no longer be needed,” he said, grinning snidely.
“Kiss my ass,” Lucian said. “You kill me, and Adam will not get Red Dart. I’m the one Brock West trusts.”
Tad chuckled. “I have it from a reliable source that West is locked up inside Powell’s lab, a nut job jacked up on some new GTECH serum. He’s useless to us now.”
Lucian’s gut clenched. “That’s impossible. Powell doesn’t have any more serum.”
“His attending doctor, Dr. Chin, says differently. See, I have Chin whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Funny how kidnapping his daughter can make things work that way.” He cocked the gun. “Would you like the bullet between the eyes or in the back of your head?”
In that instant, Lucian believed that as much as he despised Brock West, they had one thing in common. They both would do whatever was necessary to survive. And Tad…well, Tad was still an idiot. He’d left Lucian unchained, able to escape. Lucian faded into the wind. He’d help Powell before he would die.